Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice

Purpose of Justice:

Justice is a strong means to create order in a society, it is unfortunate that in the mind of many the concept of Justice in negative as we have often been used to the penal code of justice and if that is all a society has then there is a very strong reason for the negativity associated with Justice. Only a dictatorial punitive society would want such an image of community. Good and effective justice will create a society desiring to to what is right and living peacefully with each other, which is the main aim of true justice. This can only be achieved with a strong compassionate component to the Justice system. I call this Restorative Justice. This Justice was practiced in some form, though the details are hard to find, within the Biblical concept of “creating 6 cities of refuge” within the newly formed land for the Children of Israel under the leadership of Joshua.

An example of why restorative justice is needed: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/driver-who-hit-home-and-away-star-and-her-family-on-boxing-day-was-a-serial-traffic-offender/news-story/792d5dba3a3a04d4e744e7765daa84aa?utm_source=Daily%20Telegraph&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial

Process to produce Restorative Justice.

1. Laws need to be precise and subject to one interpretation and equally applicable to all.
2. Penalties to breaches to the law code must be for the purpose of demonstrating that the offending behaviour is wrong and to the balanced with an incentive to correct behaviour.
3. The legal process must seek to do two things: restore as far as possible what was damaged by the breach of the law and to correct the offending behaviour demonstrated by the breach of the law.
4. The victim of any illegal act needs to be restored back to the original state before the offending event, as far as it is humanly possible.
5. The perpetrator must admit to the offending event as being wrong, accept a process to correct behaviour, take appropriate action to restore that which was damaged by the offending event. As well as accepting a measured penalty for the offending event.
6. A perpetrator of an illegal act not conceding the need to restore that which was damaged will not be able to re-enter society as a free person and may remain in a custodial situation indefinitely.